Yaffa Ben-David, the first woman to serve as secretary general of the Teachers' Union, talks about the stormy interview on News 12 and the forceful image: "I did not want a battle"
Beautiful Ben David you did not know
Photo:
Liron Moldovan
The wall of the main corridor in the Teachers' Union building in Tel Aviv is adorned with a series of pictures: the organization's directors since its inception. They are all men. This masculine hegemony. Then came Yaffa Ben-David, the woman whose shouts beyond the wall behind the wall of pictures are hard to miss. When the difficult phone call with the senior treasurer ends, she greets me with a smile of relief and genuine light. Stranger to the bureau, and they stock up on green tea and coffee.
Well, everyone heard you scream.
"There are health risk teachers who have applied to retire due to the corona. We reached a compromise and the budget department at the Ministry of Finance does not meet the agreements reached in court. I happened to meet someone from the Ministry of Finance and he revealed to me "How much are these people already saving? And how many such people are there already? These are employees who gave their souls to the system. With these you come to settle through the hole in the divorce? So I told the Treasury that we will return to account in court and maybe I will file a new lawsuit."
But well, when I waited outside I was startled by the shouts. Now I hear the explanation and say I wish someone would take care of me in life like Shifa takes care of the teachers. Most people do not stay to hear the explanation, they say "I'm shouting" and move on.
"The common man should understand that it is from the blood of my heart. I do not immediately shout. I first explain, and whoever has a mind at the top understands. If I see injustice, it hurts me and I am angry. The simple man is demanded here more than he should give. Finance officials and interviewers On TV you can afford to sit still, it's like in an interview at the beginning of Corona News 12.
"I do not care what people think of me." In an interview with the Marciano Foundation and Yonit Levy // Photo: From News 12
"For the first two days I felt that the journalists and social networks were on the side of Yonit Levy and the Marciano Foundation. But on the third day the trend changed, people dropped the token and told me: 'I wish we had a chairman like this to fight our war, because you care.'
I shout their pain and fight.
I don't care what people think of me. "
If you were an Ashkenazi man in a tie, would you get a different attitude on television?
"I'm sure. Because I'm a woman they allowed themselves. They haven't gotten used to it yet. I'm the first woman to lead the teachers' union, it hasn't been a hundred years. People have a hard time digesting me because they are not used to women here fighting and not caring what they say about them.
Maybe it's to do with your tough look?
"It does not tickle my little finger. Like it does not speak to me flights abroad and hotels.
I grew up in a humble and valued home, this is how I was raised and this is how I educate my children.
In that interview, I felt they did not act as interviewers.
When you come to interview you have to be vocal and they both did not know how to detach themselves from the position of mothers.
They brought out the rage about what they were going through at home with the kids and threw it at me.
They had a hard time being a babysitter, like many other people.
Someone met me in Kiryat Gat, and told me that the corona did her good because she got to know her child.
'Now I understand what the teacher is talking about, I suddenly saw that my child is unable to sit for ten minutes at the computer.'
I answered her, 'And ten minutes next to the teacher do you think he can?' "
Apologize to you from News 12?
"One of them turned to my friend and asked to meet for a cup of coffee. I said I was busy at the moment. Then there were more interviews and they treated me nicely."
"Afraid only of God"
Ben-David says that in the beginning "my wars with the Treasury, when they told me 'the zoom is not worth it, stop teaching' and I said 'okay, we will stop learning from a distance', one of the seniors threatened me: 'We will go over your head and share the media.' I told them: ' Do what you want, but correct your son David - you need Y after the V. I understood that this is how they behaved in the past and people were afraid. I came with the goal of promoting the status of teachers and improving their salaries, and I will make a good wage agreement so that better human capital can work. Here".
So you also say that the level of teachers has dropped.
"Everywhere there are good ones and there are fewer. Most teaching staff are quality, come from a mission. What are they to blame? Come to the colleges with complaints. If the colleges lower the bar, what do you expect? If the state decides to raise the salary level will be better. "A full-time teacher receives NIS 6,800 and has no day and no night."
Social workers earn less, work hard and the conditions for admission to the profession are more difficult.
“The teaching profession is difficult and very abrasive.
It's not easy.
Not everyone can withstand an abrasive system with difficult requirements.
28% of new teachers retire in the first five years.
They are familiar with the system and understand that there is a gap between mission and practice.
Because there is bureaucracy, because supervision goes into your veins, because you don't let people think outside the box, because parents are unpleasantly involved many times.
When a parent does not respect the teacher, neither will the child respect, neither the teacher nor the parent.
Education starts from home.
Once the role of the teacher was to be the source of knowledge, today the role has changed, we do not need it for the knowledge, today there are technologies, we need to give them the tools for success, in studies and in the future.
This is a generation that has a lot of external temptations. "
Where are your sources of information? You are proficient in all the data and numbers.
"I have always been interested in laws, from a young age. My parents, the late Rachel and David Yifrach, were among the founders of Moshav Noam in the Shafir Regional Council, the place where I was born and raised.
My father was born in the Atlas Mountains and my mother, also from Morocco, immigrated at the age of 16 with a bachelor's degree.
My father was a public figure, a councilor and also a farmer.
He grew wheat, had orchards and turkeys and sheep and at the same time engaged in trade.
He wanted me to enter the business realm and Mom wanted me to get into the public realm.
We are seven children, I am the sixth, and we have all been pushed to learn.
Education was a supreme value at home and so was Judaism.
Some of us studied business administration, some of us teaching.
But no one is involved in teaching today, "she smiles.
"I will make a better wage agreement - so that better human capital will come to work here." Teachers 'strike in the Teachers' Union, Tel Aviv 2019 // Photo: Coco
"My mother told me: one day you will reach a public office. And when you get there you will always be with the weak because the strong will not need you. Be your mouth and feet for them because you have the abilities, and always go the right way. Mother and father always told me, if you believe there is "Whoever sees everything, you have nothing to fear."
Today when I see what is happening, I try to follow the path they have outlined for me.
Every step I take I think what they would say.
It's in front of my eyes all the time, and I'm really only afraid of God. "
Are you fighting for me?
"No, only when there is no choice. I have good advisers: Dr. Orna Lin, our legal adviser, and Ezra Ganor, economic adviser, Avi Aish the actuary and Prof. Yaron Zelicha.
These are people who accompany me in all agreements.
It's true that sometimes they say 'this is the data, keep in mind that you may fail'.
I tell them, 'Even if I do not succeed, it will not be terrible.'
It is important to me that the teaching staff know that I have done the maximum for them.
You can't succeed all the time, you have to be honest we went all the way and tried.
I went to the end of the war on sick days and pensions, and I succeeded in them out of faith and out of determination and thanks to the good advice I received. "
"Either you suffer or you learn"
I ask Ben-David about her childhood, and she tells me about her grandmother's widowhood when she was in sixth grade.
"She lives next door to us and Dad said she should not be left to sleep alone. My sister, who is a year and a half older than me, and I, volunteered to sleep with her intermittently. But my sister said she could not study there because Grandma spoke an obscure language, and Grandma told Dad she could not sleep. When we were with her because my sister spoke all night in a vague language - my sister would memorize for exams. So Grandma asked to sleep only with me because 'beautiful quiet.' Dad said to me, "You have to sleep there. So either you suffer or you learn the language and you understand what wisdom of life Grandma has." Every day after school I came to her and did lessons with her, and she taught me Moroccan, told me stories in her language and I learned a lot. " .
Useful language?
“Until Corona I was invited every month to a conference abroad.
I never travel because I love the house and prefer others to travel, but once I went to a conference that took place in Morocco and gave my lecture in Moroccan.
Everyone thought I was born there and that I lived there.
Following the lecture, I was approached by the representative of Palestine and Morocco, who of course knew I was from Israel, it was a wonderful meeting but they were afraid to be photographed.
After the lecture, it was important for me to speak Hebrew and for the world to change, so I gave an overview of the union and Israel.
We learned from them and they learned from us, and you will know that we are in a good place.
There is a lot to improve but we have a good foundation.
If Israel is less in the place of measurement and control and gives principals autonomy, it will allow teachers and kindergarteners flexibility, less bureaucracy, the system will be different.
And there is nothing like the corona to show it - what was here is like a dancer who had his hands and feet tied and still managed to dance. "
Are there gaps between religious and secular education?
"I taught in all kinds: in ultra-Orthodox, state-religious and secular education, so it depends on where you live. I was recently on a tour of the Binyamin headquarters, where there is a glorious education system. In religious education there are options for small groups because they divide boys and girls, then there are no temptations. "You are a net investor in studies. But everyone has success."
"28% of new teachers retire in the first five years." With Minister Galant // Photo: Mark Israel Salem
Ben-David attended the elementary school and the division in Even Shmuel.
“I was chairman of the student council.
Whenever students complained about a difficult test I would come to class and announce: 'There is activity'.
The principal considered social activity very much, and thus tests would be canceled.
It took the team a long time to figure out this crap.
After 10th grade, I studied with the youth group at Kibbutz Sa'ad, a wonderful place.
From there I enlisted in the reserve, studied physical education at Kay College, served in Givati, put up combat fitness for the entire command.
I once wrote a note to the brigadier general: I instruct you to gather the soldiers on Sunday and do a bar light test for them. "I did not know that he was a brigadier general and also the division commander, I was hardly a sergeant. After a week he picked up the phone just because "I had the courage to speak like that. I told him I did not understand the ranks ... but the service there trained me to manage."
At the age of 24, Yaffa married Moshe Ben-David of Yeruham, worked as a teacher and director of the municipal sports department, helped Moti Avisror to be elected mayor and also founded "Otzma", a small staffing company, because she saw that it was impossible to make a living from teaching alone.
When did you get into politics?
"In 2001. After 17 years of teaching, a friend told me, 'There are elections for the chairman of the Histadrut branch in Kiryat Gat and you have to run.'
I told her I was well versed in the laws, but who knows me?
100,000 people need to know me.
I already had three children and I was 37. My mother told me: 'Hold on, we will pray for you and God will answer the prayers'. Then my mother passed away and the elections began. I worked at the school and during breaks I ran out and handed out flyers with the principal's approval. You said, 'I do not care. Listen to what I want to do.' And it bought people. I did what my mother told me: 'Talk about yourself, not about others.' The heart is like a small fist, there is not much room to put things into it. "If you put in hatred, you will have no room for love and joy. Deal with what makes you good. I competed and won 65%."
Then you retired from teaching.
"Not immediately. After two years. Because it is impossible to do both, it is difficult to serve the public when you are working on something else. During the term the fourth daughter was born, and after the term I ran for the teachers' union because I realized that only from above influence, then everyone was against me. "They tried to buy me positions, I did not take the lead, but I joined the faction and after two years also the coalition. At the same time, I ran for the branch again, and this time I took 75%."
"My name is Mother Goose"
Then came the municipal elections in Kiryat Gat.
"Yes, in 2008. I ran there. Mina Tzemach did a poll that if it was me in front of the incumbent mayor I would take. But there were two more. So they got to know me nationally. In 2016 I ran for secretary, it was a very difficult election campaign.
Tried to get dirty and find bad things about me, journalists, private investigators, follow my family, whatever you want.
Found nothing.
I won.
I replaced more than eight branch heads, refreshed the area.
When you enter no one teaches you, there is no overlap.
I learned everything and took professional consultants, set up an external auditing body, not just an internal one.
The goal is to get the right people to say what to change and what to improve, I am not afraid of criticism. "
Yaffa Ben-David's family should not come under pressure from the quarantine, everyone is with her anyway.
The youngest daughter lives in an adjoining housing unit, the eldest daughter lives upstairs, and the two sons and three grandchildren (meanwhile) are also close: "We are a family within each other. My name is Mother Goose."
Although they are not teachers, I wonder if Yaffa goes through the reports from her children's provident funds and the pay slips and bargains for their rights, because according to her to-do list for the holiday, they have fallen quite badly.
Where will you be in ten years?
"I will continue my public work. I have goals in the Histadrut, the salary agreement and respect for the teacher. I want teaching to be a coveted profession."
Did you receive proposals from parties?
"I got in the third election and still turn to me here and there. I do not close a door under any circumstances but this is not the time. I have more goals to conquer first. When I come to the place, until I have achieved all the goals I do not progress."
